Winkelmann is also thanks to SARIO's assistence coming to Rimavska Sobota

The German company Winkelmann announced a new investment on 27th April 2023 in Rimavská Sobota. Winkelmann is planning to invest 110 million euros in the production of metal hot water tanks for heat pumps and heaters and to create 450 new jobs in the state-owned industrial park in Rimavská Sobota. The start of production is planned for the beginning of 2025.

SARIO agency has been in touch with Winkelamnn since September 2022, when the first meeting with the company owner and the project team was organized. Subsequently, this investment project was led by two consultancy companies, which were provided by SARIO with intensive support: in addition to site selection, consultancy on investment incentives, and analysis of the labor force, several detailed RFIs (requests for information) were prepared for the shortlisted locations.

Two further meetings were organized in November and December 2022 involving other stakeholders and external partners. Subsequently, the investor claimed that Rimavská Sobota was shortlisted together with another location outside Slovakia. This decision resulted in another meeting in Rimavská Sobota taking place in January 2023, where representatives of the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, the city of Rimavská Sobota, and the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic also participated.

Since March 2023, SARIO was coordinating intensive negotiations related to the preparation of the park, its timeline, technical infrastructure, investment incentives, and other support mechanisms. Their result was the Letter of Intent signed on 27 April 2023 in Rimavská Sobota between  Eduard Heger, the Acting Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Karol Hirman, the Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic, and Heinrich Winkelmann, the owner of the Winkelmann company, Robert Šimončič, SARIO CEO also took part at the ceremony.

During his speech after the signing, Heinrich Winkelmann specifically named and thanked the people who helped in the preparation process of the arrival of the investment to Slovakia and he also thanked the people from SARIO, especially Robert Šimončič and Tomáš Salíni "who did a perfect job and who was the one who first introduced us to Slovakia when we met about 6 months ago."

VIDEO

• memorandum signing and press conference (Facebook MH SR)